Climate

Dylan Malloch laments that understanding climate change is difficult, with the forecasts sometimes appearing to be contradictory or having a bit both ways, and therefore seeming all rather confusing! It’s easy to sympathise with him. Unfortunately, this is the nature of science.

Just because climate change science is as hard to understand as Einstein's theories doesn't mean it's wrong. Image: AP.

Let’s consider another example. Newton’s laws of physics work just fine for the everyday world, but if we tried to use them in the timing system of our global positioning satellites, the resulting drift error would be about 10 kilometres every day.

So, the engineers at GPS mission control need to use Einstein’s relativistic theories to make sure your iPhone tells you precisely where you are, whenever you want to know. Similarly, neither Newton’s or Einstein’s equations allow scientists to properly predict the subatomic interactions within the electronics of satellites or iPhones. For that, you need to reference the weird world of quantum mechanics.

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  • Joshua Leppard says:

    08:31pm | 30/10/11

    All the factors which may or may not affect climate change, affect the overall relationship we have with eachother as well as with the planet. To focus on the possible effects on climate change alone is to ignore the bigger picture. Read more »

  • Geoff Russell says:

    04:31pm | 17/02/11

    Of course climate scientists make predictions and they are pretty damned accurate.  Here’s a general prediction from 1988 modelling ... and doing quite well 20 years on: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/hansens-1988-projections/ More generally the prediction of more heat waves is also falsifiable but proving accurate ... look at page 2 here: http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/eiab/State-of-climate-2010-updated.pdf There… Read more »

 

What started as a ripple is now growing into a powerful protest wave sweeping across our great nation.

You reckon they're angry? Picture by John Mikkelsen width=

In the space of a week, it has been fed by a series of fiery meetings in outback Queensland and southern States, a symbolic funeral service in Perth and gatherings in Brisbane and Melbourne.

At first glance these might seem unrelated, but beneath the surface they are connected by a strong under current of people pushed to the limits. The Perth “funeral” on the steps of Parliament House involved the “death” of property rights, complete with wreath laying, a piper in full regalia and a cortege to Cottesloe Beach for symbolic burial.

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  • Cate Stuart says:

    01:15pm | 24/11/10

    Agree Ian Yeates. Lets hope Tony Abbott can really fill out his “budgie smugglers” and get on with stopping this run away train of money being syphoned of farming sectors, as they are now going bellie up - thanks in part to Julia! Wild Rivers, Native vegetation, Wilderness Nominations, Threatened… Read more »

  • AB says:

    05:12pm | 16/11/10

    sorry about the double post Read more »

 

Welcome to Monday @ The Punch

A boat like this lost 353 lives back in 2001

Today in 2001 an Indonesian fishing boat carrying 440 asylum seekers sinks en-route to Christmas Island. The event led to the loss of 353 lives.

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  • JatExtill says:

    11:11am | 17/05/12

    With he’s our guy with respect to a person’s future,’’ Elway said. ‘‘And sometimes we buy as a way to sacrifice the short-term to get some sort of long-term which can grab a guy which in turn you believe would be whom next guy on you, and then that’s Brock… Read more »

  • Emaittytify says:

    09:36am | 16/05/12

    Andersen then rejoined Denver to find the 2008-09 time period, providing the spark off some of the bench in addition to the swatting 175 shots during our regular year or so . His play around the specific rim helped the main Nuggets make an important run to make sure you… Read more »

 

August 2009 was Australia’s warmest on record. Temperatures averaged over the country were 2.47C above the long-term average, nearly a degree above the previous August record set in 1998, and 25% of the country had its hottest August day on record at some stage during the month.

Monthly daytime maximum record temperatures, 1957 to 2007

Some places, such as Collarenebri and Murwillumbah in NSW and Gatton in Queensland, broke their previous August records by 5C or more. Temperatures reached as high as 37.8C at Mungindi in NSW and 38.5C at Bedourie in Queensland, both of which were all-time state records for August.

Such an exceptional month leads to many people to ask: is this climate change?

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  • 21 year old says:

    11:13pm | 06/11/09

    To me, climate change is propaganda at its best. I can’t believe the government want to dictate to me how I live my life. Even now, I struggle to find a decent light bulb, other than those nasty fluroscent ‘energy savers’. Even if Australia adopted an ETS, the results will… Read more »

  • Jason says:

    10:33pm | 22/09/09

    Rob - I was working for a large (big 5) IT company during y2k, was involved in a large number of Y2K tests and analysis and to be brutally honest it was a complete load.  Very few environments had any Y2K issues, the majority were resolved with minimal effort (mostly… Read more »

 

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